A cheeseburger Happy Meal is seen in San Francisco, Calif. on Tuesday August 10, 2010. Supervisor Eric Mar wants to ban fast food restaurants from offering toys and prizes in meals geared toward children and teens unless the meals have less than 600 calories.

Photo: Lea Suzuki, The Chronicle

A cheeseburger Happy Meal is seen in San Francisco, Calif. on...

Image 2 of 4

A cheeseburger Happy Meal is seen in San Francisco, Calif. on Tuesday August 10, 2010. Supervisor Eric Mar wants to ban fast food restaurants from offering toys and prizes in meals geared toward children and teens unless the meals have less than 600 calories.

Photo: Lea Suzuki, The Chronicle

A cheeseburger Happy Meal is seen in San Francisco, Calif. on...

Image 3 of 4

A cheeseburger Happy Meal is seen in San Francisco, Calif. on Tuesday August 10, 2010. Supervisor Eric Mar wants to ban fast food restaurants from offering toys and prizes in meals geared toward children and teens unless the meals have less than 600 calories.

Photo: Lea Suzuki, The Chronicle

A cheeseburger Happy Meal is seen in San Francisco, Calif. on...

Image 4 of 4

A cheeseburger Happy Meal is seen in San Francisco, Calif. on Tuesday August 10, 2010. Supervisor Eric Mar wants to ban fast food restaurants from offering toys and prizes in meals geared toward children and teens unless the meals have less than 600 calories.

Maybe it's because his Republican rival for lieutenant governor, Abel Maldonado, mocked him as the "chief of the food police."

Or maybe, as his spokesman says, it's having to make "tough choices" in hard times.

Whatever the case, San Francisco Mayor GavinNewsom - long a champion of healthful eating and drinking - has put himself on an uncharacteristically strict political diet.

Whether the subject is high-sugar sodas, alcohol or fast food, the man who once made headlines by banning bottled water at City Hall and promoting the "slow food" movement is taking calls for food reform with a much larger dose of salt.

The latest sign of political moderation is Newsom's opposition to legislation being pushed by his own Public Health Department to ban toys from high-fat kids' meals at fast-food joints.

McDonald's and the California Restaurant Association are lobbying heavily to block or blunt the measure. And they seem to have an ace up their sleeve, because Newsom says that if the supervisors pass the ban, he'll veto it.

"It's one thing to educate people and make sure they have healthy choices, but this is over the line," mayoral spokesman Tony Winnickersaid. "What's next - Tony the Tiger, boxes of Cracker Jacks?"

"That's surprising to me," Supervisor Eric Mar, the measure's sponsor, said of the threatened veto. He pointed out that the toy ban is consistent with the mayor's "record of trying to support healthier eating and healthier choices for people."

Mar said he will push ahead with his legislation - trying to get the eight votes on the 11-member Board of Supervisors needed to override a mayoral veto - "because it's the right thing to do."

Just last week, citing the likelihood of a costly lawsuit the city couldn't win, Newsom vetoed another get-healthy idea that came out of the board - charging wine and liquor wholesalers a fee to cover the city's cost of dealing with chronic street drunks.

Booze fee backer Supervisor John Avalos promptly raised the possibility of going to the ballot, noting that the mayor had not raised the same litigation fears when it came to charging a 20-cent-per-pack fee for cigarette cleanup or even allowing same-sex marriages.

Newsom has also abandoned plans to introduce legislation charging grocery stores and big-box retailers a fee for the sugary sodas they sell.

Winnicker said Newsom had nixed both the alcohol and soda fees partly because they would "hurt restaurants and businesses."

But one does wonder.

"It's hard not to view this through the lens of someone running for statewide office who has been hit pretty hard on the notion of San Francisco as a nanny state," said San Francisco State political science Professor Corey Cook.

Newsom, however, will sign a ban on pharmacies selling cigarettes.

"We don't feel there are a lot of jobs connected to tobacco in the city," Winnicker said.

Meanwhile: Speaking of the new Gavin Newsom, we can't remember the last time a liberal Democrat took out an ad slamming a Republican rival for voting to increase taxes - but that is just what Newsom is doing to Maldonado.

In a new radio ad, Newsom hits the former state senator for having voted to support the "biggest tax increase in California history."

Never mind that the hike also was supported by Democrats as a way of closing the budget gap and preventing the cuts in social services that Newsom so often decries.

But then, the anti-tax ad - which is airing in conservative parts of Southern California - isn't intended for Democrats. It's intended to undermine support for Maldonado in his own party.

Battle of the buzz: It's getting so you need a flowchart to follow who's on which side in the fight over legalizing pot in California.

Then on the bong versus bong front, the California Cannabis Association - which represents a group of Sacramento medical marijuana dispensaries - came out against legalization as well, fearing it may allow conservative towns to ban medicinal pot.

As the infighting increases, so do the quips.

"I can't wait to hear what Lady Gaga has to say," said state Assemblyman Tom Ammiano.